I received this book from the publisher (Simon & Schuster Canada) in a giveaway - never read a Philippa Gregory book before, and am looking forward to it!

So, I finished reading The Kingmaker's Daughter last night. I didn't know what to expect - other than historical fiction - as I haven't read any of Philippa Gregory's books before. I do own The Other Boleyn Girl, but haven't gotten to it yet.

The Kingmaker's Daughter was fine for its genre - the detail about life in the time of Edward IV and Richard III is plentiful. But I never felt pulled below the surface, so to speak, of this book. I think it is in large part because I don't really find Gregory's writing style that compelling. She writes in first person from the pov of Anne Neville, and for me, this made the story very simplistic and 2-dimensional; it was like reading the diary of a young girl, who doesn't have a grasp of the emotional depths of real life. After a while, the flat monotone of Anne's voice (as a character) got a little boring.

The book was okay, and I may read The Other Boleyn Girl, someday. But a glance at it told me that it is written in the same first person style, so I'm not in a big hurry. I just don't feel that first person perspective really allows a book much depth, doesn't make the whole world the character lives in feel very real. At least it didn't in this book, for me.

To sum up: the book was all right, but not anything I'd recommend or certainly never reread.